Mediating illness: newspaper coverage of tranquilliser dependence

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the value of insights from media studies for medical sociology by focusing on the cultural and ideological messages transmitted in newspaper coverage of tranquilliser dependence. An analysis of 62 stories recounting the experiences of individual tranquilliser users reveals that journalists concentrate on two kinds of person – the celebrity and the ordinary user- in their reports. The ways in which the press deploys these users' experiences of tranquilliser dependence and withdrawal and their relationship with the medical profession are then analysed, with particular attention being given to the cultural and ideological meanings embedded in its descriptions of such experiences and relations. The paper ends with a discussion of the reasons for the transmission of such meanings by the press and their possible effect on different audiences.

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